Rarely do I prepare a recipe for the first time and have the Mr say, “That was restaurant quality”.  But this evening, it happened.  I suppose his response could have been triggered by the fact that he’d not eaten one bite of food since an early breakfast this morning.  Starvation can make any entree more palatable.  But we both found it quite tasty.  And you know I didn’t go all day without eating.  That never happens.  

I had pork chops in the fridge.   I had potatoes, both white and sweet.  And being too lazy to put forth much effort, I googled recipes for pork chops in the oven.  This may well be a winner.  Basic ingredients, simple process, fabulous results.   I changed things just a bit regarding preparation, and here’s the recipe!! 

picture from Pinterest…. they should have used foil in their pan.  Clean up is so much easier.  And the green stuff?  Parsley.  I didn’t use it.

Brown Sugar Garlic Pork Chops 

Oven 375      Use a baking sheet lined with aluminum foil that is crimped up over the sides of the baking sheet.  This recipe serves two hangry people or three to four folks that don’t eat like pigs.  Or just use as many pork chops as you’d like and increase the measurements as needed.  You’ll need a very large baking sheet for more than 4 pork chops.  

2 or 3 large thick pork chops, or 4 regular size pork chops, bone in.  Or out, probably doesn’t matter. 

2 or 3 white potatoes or a similar amount of sweet potatoes, cut into 1 1/2″ cube-like pieces.  Or do like I did, use a few white and a few sweet.  

3 tablespoons of canola oil.  Or seriously use whatever cooking oil you have on hand.  

1/2 cup packed light brown sugar

2 tablespoons of minced garlic.  (I used dehydrated garlic from a jar, fresh would be even better)

3/4 tsp Kosher salt.  Or ground sea salt.  Or whatever salt you have in your shaker.

1/2 tsp ground pepper.  

Mix the canola oil and the salt and pepper in a shallow bowl or pie plate or whatever.  Add the diced up potatoes to this mixture and stir them around then take them out of the oil mix and place them on one side of the baking sheet, in a single layer.  The potatoes can be touching or even overlapping a bit, no problem.  Take the pork chops and kind of lightly swipe them through the remaining oil mixture then place them on the vacant side of the baking sheet.  Mix the brown sugar and the minced garlic together, then cover each pork chop with this mixture.  Save just a bit of this and sprinkle it lightly over the potatoes here and there.  

Bake uncovered for 35-40 minutes until pork is at least 145 degrees.  Let it set for 3-5 minutes before serving.  You should find a lovely liquid in the foil-lined pan along with the chops and potatoes.  Spoon that golden goodness over your pork chops if you want.  Then eat it up.      The next time I make it I might add some onion slices on top of the pork chops before adding the brown sugar mix.  Maybe.  Maybe not.  

Any given day you’ll find posted pictures on Facebook of stuff I’ve fixed to eat.  Before I’ve eaten it.  Sure makes sense to do it that way.  For a few brief moments this plate contained the pork chops, the potatoes, and a nice side dish of steamed green beans.  I didn’t take a picture prior to eating because my expectations were quite low that it would be photo-worthy food.  Au contraire, it was really good.